Daniel Anthonisen is a second generation artist who is well known for his Bucks County landscapes. His love of this part of Pennsylvania is evident in his work. He is able to capture a special magical quality and his work somehow evokes the past, yet feels very present.
I’ve known Daniel’s talented parents for years. His father is a renowned artist well known for being one of America’s foremost figurative sculptors. And, his mother is a strong and intelligent presence in Bucks County’s arts and cultural community.
I’ve admired Daniel for his dedication to his art form. He has an otherworldly quality that comes from immersing oneself in art. It appears he uses his art, much like his famous father, as a means to understand the world and express that understanding in a powerful way.
Daniel is an extraordinary being who seems lit from another planet as he uses his prodigious talents to explore some of life’s biggest mysteries.
Enjoy his thought provoking answers to the “SolFul” questions put forth to him.
Artist Name: Daniel Anthonisen
Profession: Fine Arts painter
What drives you? Sweet shamanic ecstasy. Feeling the sensuality of the experience.
What does it mean to you to be an artist? Being an artist has often meant an adventure of entering realms of creative exploration. I grew up surrounded by art, mostly wonderful female nudes that my father had sculpted that had a great dignity, beauty and were of a meditative quality.
My parents made a daily ritual of sharing a sit-down dinner. We, my sister, mother and father and I would sit at a table surrounded by the female nudes that my father had sculpted. During the meal, that was often a very wonderful, delicious and beautiful meal that my mother had made, we would light a candle and have conversations and share with each other about what was going on in our lives. Often the conversations would have emotional aspects. We would communicate and discuss things that were or are disturbing in the world. There was always a sense of mutual respect and dignity at our dinner table.
In a sense, the table became almost like a mythic place of confession, communication, conversation and meditation. My parents hardly, if ever, used the word “meditation” or spoke about Yoga. Although they never spoke of it as such, it eventually dawned on me that it was a classic example or even scene of channeling energy. In fact when I would be reading about Yoga and yogic practices, or attending some Yoga classes years later, the concept of yoking one’s consciousness to the whole was described. A Yoga teacher described Tantric practices as not only pertaining to sex, but to describing a tradition of channeling energies through employing powers of the imagination with room for innovation and new branches of tantric practices to grow. I had also read somewhere, I believe in a Joseph Campbell book, that the word “religious,” was related to the Latin word “Religio,’ meaning to link back to the whole.
Both my parents had always celebrated a photography book called “The Family of Man.” This celebration of sharing humanity and art had a religious quality to it and at the same time involved a beautiful sense of freedom. My father’s sexual energy was channeled in relationship to preserving the family as he is a loving family person who very much loves my mother. They always communicated as equal people, accepted each other as equal people.
Eventually I became aware that the religion of my family was more art than anything else. To me art is life as meditation. It is also exciting because it can be wonderfully monk-like and witch-like at the same time. There was something so wonderful about the dark bronze nudes relating to my family and the broader family of humanity. Perhaps I say witch-like because when I was a child and found a picture of a beautiful witch in a black cloak with a six-pointed star, speaking to me of mystery as well as someone who had empowered themselves in the face of oppressive society, based on their understanding and use of mythic language. “Who is that beautiful dark woman, and what does that symbol mean to her?” I automatically asked myself when looking at the watercolor. It was an invitation to understand mythic language on my own terms and a departure from subscribing to a limited menu selection of institutionalized religion categories and labels.
It was different than seeing or hearing about people who had gold six pointed stars sewn onto their jackets to identify and categorize them from the outside in under the awful umbrella of extreme prejudice and genocide. My father had married a woman that many people saw as being Jewish and he loved her. He also was whole heartedly concerned with the dynamics of these things as they related to civil rights and liberties, to freedom and equality. So among the nude sculptures and frescoes he made, he would often exclaim “Isn’t she beautiful…she could be Jewish, African, Asian or Hispanic…” At the same time, these women had manifested as meditative expressions of himself, so that they were not simply exotic women in some kind of Colonial Harem that he had sexualized. He was sharing humanity, and in a sense, making love with the world. This profound spirit of familial love and the witness of my parents’ love and passion and acceptance of each other as equals, while dedicated to practicing meditation through the arts, deeply touched my soul and my sense of what it means to make a home for the soul.
To me art relates to making a home for the soul and is a kind of religious path as unique as any individual. As a teenager a rite of passage involving a wilderness trip and authentic Native American sweat lodge ceremony further enhanced my intuitive sense of ritual relating to color, mythic language and legacies of genocide. David Knudsen, who facilitated the first sweat lodge ceremony that I participated in, and who also spoke of Jungian ideas and the work of Joseph Campbell, was also a catalyst in so far as me being able to see into the richness of the art path.
Also, thanks to my mother encouraging me to speak with my father’s cousin Margaret Rioch when I had expressed interest in Zen and Taoism as a teen, Margaret introduced me to the work of Jiddu Krishnamurti. Margaret, my father and I saw and heard Krishnamurti speak in Washington D.C. when I was 15. This was another profound impression that related to how I see the practice of art as it relates to examining the content of our consciousness in relationship with the rest of humanity and the planet. Being an artist to me means remaining in touch with mediums and materials that not only allow a study of and communion with nature, but also allow for a continuous reassessment of how reality is experienced. This to me includes fostering an awareness of paradigms of thought or lenses that have been generated through human constructs such as mythic language.
Would you be an artist if you never got paid for your work – why/why not? Is pay in this context referring to a monetary reward or exchange for my artwork? In this sense there is an understanding that there are currents in society that are trends set by power and status that encourage people to define their values based on what others want them to do for money. In my opinion it is perverse to encourage people to think from the outside in as opposed to celebrating the intuitions of individuality that are a part of the gift of life and that relate to the value of self-knowledge. It is a wonderful thing to not only offer gratitude for the monetary endorsement of my work. It is a wonderful thing to feel that I have something to offer the rest of the world through the inherent self-knowledge of intuitions that merge with a state of learning in the present. It is relevant to investigate the phrase “working for combat pay” and how it alludes to something different than the phrase “making love with the world.”
What role does art have in the world – why is it important/impactful/ meaningful: Art has the potential to be a form of progressive learning as well as a valuable form of expression that excites the imagination of other people. Both aspects of the potential of art relate to finding out what is true and/or important in life. To share humanity in this respect becomes a profound energy relating to sharing excitement about creativity. Personally, I see “art” as something to aspire to that involves a constructive channeling of energy in relationship to holistic health of individual and community.
To me art is different than artifice. People who apply themselves in a way of learning with aspirations of being artists in whatever it is that they do are people who are authentically committed to being students of life with creative aspirations.
Artifice may utilize similar energies and work in similar arenas, but the energies amount to a much shallower and selfish and superficial agenda. It is much different to paint a painting with a goal of making it look like an impressionist painting than to actually open as an individual to impressions of the life experience. The word or category of “Impressionism,” has a wonderful built-in quality of transcending categories. Like the word or category “Blues music,” it may imply a history, and at the same time relate to a dynamic of art making that relates to a vastness of music. To me, the authenticity of art relates to skill in action, to classical Eastern notions such as a suggestion that martial arts means a truth with the self.
A creative economy is different than a militarized economy. The right to be creative and creativity itself are things worth fighting for or should remain protected or promoted as valuable and special things in a free society. To capitalize on these things with artifice and to play into serving only a moneyed militarized war machine misses the point entirely. It is entirely different than sharing humanity in the realm of excitement about creativity and equality. Similarly if wealthy landowners who have the power and money to invest in a so called “impressionism” that excludes nudity or various subject matter deemed to be uncomfortable or unacceptable, the trend of art becomes less about explorations of everyday reality than a form of banking that serves the wealthy. This operates on a personal level, as the transactions of the world are through individuals.
It is especially wonderful when people that are wealthy enough to buy art celebrate in authentic explorations in such a way that a spirit of art and humanity is shared in a mutually beneficial relationship. This is relevant to personal relationships and looking into what love is, what it means to love someone beyond a projection of oneself. Art involves channeling energies with imagination. Art involves fostering a growing awareness and self-knowledge in relationship to the energies that are a part of our lives and how these things relate to mutually beneficial relationships. Most things in life involve some kind of relationship to such an extent that it has been observed that life itself can be observed as a process. To embark on artistic adventures while feeling and learning about the interconnectedness of the process of life can be a step in the direction of holistic health and thought. By holistic health I mean a state of health that relates to the world beyond commitments to partial thought that become stagnant limitations and obstacles to expanding our consciousness in so far as how we experience and see and share the world.
To paint the world with the energy of a passionate involvement with life can be a kind of dreaming and re-creating the world with poetic expressions inviting further creative exploration. This isn’t to say that people should just paint ideals, that would be totally missing the point of opening to the world with a freedom to explore any subjects, simply understanding that the exploration is in the context of creativity. In this manner it becomes possible to explore who and what we are through exploring the content of our consciousness and to look into how we relate with the process of life and living.
There are also many kinds of dimensional spaces to explore in art. Exploring, meditating and describing things in realms of dimensional space such as light, atmosphere, color, shapes and forms are ways of being involved with life beyond superficially labeling, identifying and categorizing things, people and places. Art functions in many ways as a re-enchantment of everyday life, as well as a kind of experimental realm of exploration relating to artists being the nerve endings of society, let alone being individual human beings expressing aspects of what it means to be a human being.
I believe that one of the ultimate truths of self-knowledge is that we are all a part of the same thing on this planet earth. Art relates to a path of learning that relates to the miracle of being alive and recognizing the potentiality of humanity within a personal and broader sense of potential. When a person becomes enamored with thriving in a state of attention to study a work of art or make a work of art, there is an energy, an energetic union that manifests. In such a state there is a lack of conflict in so far as a surrender to the present in a state of learning. When color, light, atmosphere, forms and many other things are incorporated in story-telling, there is a unique involvement with the world that can manifest.
In some regards it is useful to acknowledge the dynamic of art in relationship to money. The ideas of freedom and the individual in relationship to art can easily relate to the symbols on a U.S. dollar bill relating to flower power. The phrase “God smiles on our accomplishments” that appears near a bed of flowers is a depiction of a kind of flower power. Relevant to this, the question “if the individual exists just for the state, what is the purpose?” reflects light on the significance of what it means for people to endorse the artwork of an individual.
So, art relates to the structure and mythic language of society. It is at the same time an acknowledgement of how special and valuable insights and forms of self-knowledge beyond institutionalized thought can be to individuals and society. Art is the perfect arena to break all the rules in spirit of exploration. I feel a partialness to the value of figurative art that calls for extensive learning in terms of developing a vocabulary. To me, this relates to the communicative potentiality of the arts as far as sharing humanity in various kinds of story-telling involving the life experience, and the planet. The notion of endorsing an application of self that coincides with self-knowledge also relates to a sense of religious freedom. Often in humanity there are taboos that exist in a society.
The extremists and fundamentalists of any society become a risk to the well-being of freedom and those that express questions and explorations regardless of taboos. The celebration of the freedom of art, when taken to heart, transcends money as an empty power symbol. If on the other hand gallery owners lean on artists to produce a work aimed at pleasing the people that can afford artwork , there is a message that manifests that speaks of encouraging our values to be shaped by money that is in the hands of an existing power structure.
To let money define our values rather than thinking from the inside out in a spirit of contemplating and learning about what is true or important easily becomes a detriment to fostering a healthy society. On the other hand, to share the blossoming of individuals in society, to share what money means in relationship to a healthy version of flower power becomes a mutual reciprocity or union of growth ,learning and values. Individuals who apply themselves can flower through the intuitive efforts of following their bliss in a process of life as meditation.
So art relates to preserving freedom, especially when there are attitudes that would easily play into various kinds of censorship and limitations on human rights. It is especially wonderful that in our society we theoretically have the right to continuously re-invent a ritual of sharing and experiencing art. For those who are able to actually become involved with life and creativity in a domain of sharing an art spirit, it represents incredible potentials for valuing life as learning.
What does it mean to share creative energy? It is especially important to register the significance of it in this time when entities such as political parties and other various human constructs potentially bring about self-defeating polarizations of people in a society. Furthermore, it is also relevant to recognize the very personal associations that art objects communicate. Often a work of art carries a physical record of the energy of a human being that transferred their energy into the materials that they were working with. This combined with stories in figurative art relating to emotional intelligence stipulates a much different kind of depiction, representation, record or notation of humanity than concepts alone.
Perhaps one could say it is like the difference of reading a book with a personal account of experiencing war in contrast to a book that describes history and wars as matters of military strategies. The personal account of figurative art that incorporates the emotional intelligence of experience makes for different stories than something that is all or mostly conceptual.
To me it is not as much a matter of communication that involves telling people what the right thing is as much as it can become a celebration of potentiality and involvement with life. This kind of involvement can be contagious and involve sharing humanity in a spirit of equality and creative aspirations and growth.
How do you work on your craft? Do you work daily? Do you wait for inspiration to strike? Do you work at home? In a studio? Has your working style changed over the years? I work through following the blissful, ecstatic, or shamanic aspect of life as learning. This involves a departure from psychological time into the realms of attention, intuitions, imagination, experimentation, exploration and learning. Every day relates to life as meditation. I work in waves of organizing materials, time and schedule so that my energy coincides with knowing when the right time is to paint. I aspire to paint every day, although that is not always the case.
I very much value the adventure of collecting information through experience, studies, photos and feelings. Many of my paintings relate to the local scenery of the Tohickon Creek and Delaware River in feeling if not in exact references or appearances.
Often as I develop a painting through feelings, I realize that I need to visit a place along the creek or river that coincides with the feel of the landscape or riverscape that I am developing in paint. In this way it is a wonderful adventure into the painting so that it becomes like some kind of magical mission or vision quest in order to see the paintings through to completion.
I find that this approach has often led to a balance between the depth of painting inside and the depth of painting outside.
What do you love about being an artist? I love mostly everything about it. The freedom of schedule as a self-employed person, and the challenge of the work that is a never ending path of learning. The art process that is forever changing and full of adventure is an excellent side of it, as humbling as it often can be. If work becomes too formulaic it becomes monotonous and dull, so the domain of exploration preserves a crucial vitality.
The learning that comes with being an artist involves both past and present and can relate to anything under the sun. It has also always been wonderful and useful to learn how to write about my work. My mother has been an expert teacher in this regard. Both of my parents and my sister have always loved reading good books and looking at good art books. To carry a sense of family in this context of learning is also a wonderful thing. These things combined, not to mention now being able to use the internet for visual references and sharing work at times, translates as an access and overlap with a global community in spirit as much as in any actual professional transactions.
It is also to the point to think of how incredible it is when clients and patrons buy and endorse my work, and what that means in so far as a celebration of freedom. To have an opportunity to manage my time and skillsets through my intuitions and then to have my work in various peoples’ houses and collections, museums or certain show venues is a profound celebration of freedom and learning in my opinion. It is truly incredible and beautiful to think of and experience a community of people that have been open to my work and endorsed my work for good prices.
I love the aspect of art that involves languages and energies that are not spoken of or referred to in most everyday ordinary reality. By languages I mean things like color, light, atmosphere, the human body, shapes, forms …there are a multitude of languages relating to energies that we experience; although frequently these energies exist beyond our habitual reference to them in words or even as languages that we consciously or formally acknowledge as languages. To be involved with intuitive story telling that involves such languages is an incredible adventure involving learning and meditation. And that said, being an artist often has felt to be an escape into reality rather than an escape from reality. To me this absolutely includes the imagination, knowing that the imagination is real and often relates to the realities of mythic language.
These realms of exploration, such as imagination and mythic language in relationship to reality can frequently relate to examining paradigms of thought and perception that relate to how we experience the world let alone relating to how we continue to re-create the world around us.
What do you feel you are expressing through your work? Involvement with life
Who/What inspires you? Many many things. The Delaware River has always been enchanting to me. To this day the local Tohickon Creek, High Rocks at Ralph Stover State Park, and the Delaware River are enchanting inspirational grounds. To me these places are like stages of storytelling places often perfect for various characters to be. While the landscapes and riverscapes might be stories in and of themselves, I love the potential of stories involving people in these familiarly flavored settings.
Ultimately, I aspire to harmonize with nature and I have always been fascinated with the mystery of death…of what death means in relationship to life. My parents have been a profoundly wonderful influence on my understanding and relationship with what it means to pursue a career in art. Their love and their depth, authenticity and sincerity as people has also profoundly influenced my life and perception as to what is possible in terms of shaping and making a lifestyle as people deeply involved with art. My mother had been an incredible driving force for both my father and me in the business of art. Both parents have been and remain great teachers in my life as well as great friends, and from my perspective, great people.
My sister is also a wonderful person who understands and practices art in ways that fascinate me. She is a very talented puppeteer. We have had many wonderful conversations that refresh and inform each other as we relate to an art path. It has also been very natural for me to intensely appreciate the Wyeth family in terms of the quality of their artwork, the seriousness with which they regard art and the family legacy of art all combined together.
Odd Nerdrum is another favorite painter. His work is classical in some respects, in relationship to many great master painters such as Rembrandt. At the same time, his paintings feel as if one is walking into a psychological landscape; and he has clearly shown that he exercises the freedom to paint whatever he wants to or needs to paint. He paints so well that there is often an intoxicating quality when a person experiences the quality of one of his canvases in real life and feels the physicality of it combined with the feelings of the work.
I also believe that the many patrons and clients, friends and family that have endorsed my efforts and expressed a value for my work are at least as much artists as any artist. It never ceases to amaze me that there are people in the world that open to the world in this way. It fills me with an optimism and excitement about creativity as well as a deep appreciation for the people themselves.
Photo of Daniel Anthonisen at work by John Hoenstine
Art: Picnic With a Mystery by Daniel Anthonisen